While the United States and its northern neighbor managed to eventually pull back from the brink of an all-out trade war in just one of many unhinged moments in the first few weeks of the second Trump administration so far, the thought of a potential, unprecedented conflict between America and Canada is suddenly on a lot of people’s minds. And to excise those thoughts, they’re turning to a 2015 comic that explored exactly that.
A decade ago this coming June–just weeks after Donald Trump had initially announced his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election–Image Comics released We Stand on Guard, a six-issue miniseries from Saga‘s Brian K. Vaughan and Doc Frankenstein‘s Steve Skroce. Set in a fictionalized 2124, the series covered the rise of a Canadian resistance to a mechanized U.S. occupation of the country after a drone strike assassinated the U.S. president. While just 10 years ago the extrapolation may have looked like an outlandish imagining of potential U.S. and Canadian political relations, in 2025 it’s looking… well, still pretty outlandish, but like it’s striking a nerve.
A nerve that apparently has people reading. In the wake of the recent political upheaval ushered in by Trump’s return to the White House, Image announced this morning that in the last week, sales of the series in collected formats have exceeded prior sales of the series for the past year, with hardcover collections of We Stand on Guard approached a near sell out. “Many of my proudest collaborations have been with Canadian creators, and it was a particular thrill to finally work with legendary artist Steve Skroce,” Vaughan added in a newly-released statement. “So I’m grateful that readers have been revisiting our nightmarish war story, which we hope remains fiction.”
As The Beat reports, the actual numbers paint an interesting divide between U.S. and Canadian readers. On Amazon US, We Stand on Guard‘s collected edition ranks at 19,856th among all book sales as of writing, rising up to second place in the dystopian graphic novels category, while in Canada the same edition currently ranks 1,084th, slightly down from a recent high of 702nd. In Skroce’s home nation, the book is second in a number of categories on Amazon, including overall sci-fi graphic novels and, oddly enough, Canadian military history.
While Trump’s bizarre calls for Canada to become the 51st state have died down after a delay on the implementation of tariffs on goods between the U.S. and Canada were postponed on the eve of their implementation, there is still plenty of time for things to heat up on the trade front again in the volatility of the current U.S. administration. Plenty of time to get reading some comics, too, apparently.
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